


play me like one of your french songs

by neopunch (caihongs)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lawyers, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Neighbours, Strangers to Lovers, many proclamations of love and marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22316413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caihongs/pseuds/neopunch
Summary: Doyoung wants to knock on the door and finally learn the truth about the mysterious inhabitant of Unit 142. The piano playing, cooking neighbour....Nobody answers, but a slow slap of slippers against woodboards grows louder and louder until a shadow is cast on top of the yellow light. It’s one person, Doyoung deduces and decidedly, not two lovely lesbians but one Man. A man who opens the door, in plaid pajama pants, a black tee with a low neckline, exposing his collarbone and a dip in his chest, and with very, very pretty face.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Comments: 26
Kudos: 282





	play me like one of your french songs

**Author's Note:**

> Alternatively, 'gymnopedie no. 1 but your sad neighbour don't stop playing that song all night long' and make it dojae

Doyoung doesn’t confront. He will stay silent about the anger and frustration brewing in his body until he either gets used to it, or it eventually stops. It’s usually the former, but that’s the thing— his non-confrontational nature serves him in the end. 

So if he’s become numb to banging headboards and house parties every second night from his last two apartment blocks, so be it.

But as they say, third time’s the charm! His neighbours on the right are a lovely couple, Joohyun and Seulgi. They always bake him chewy cookies and invite him over for dinner and wine at least once a month, where they talk about exes, corporate assholes, and how the two ladies are thinking of having a baby soon. Doyoung loves them to death.

On the other hand, specifically his left, he has no clue of. Ever since he’s moved in, coming up on three months now, he hasn’t caught a glimpse of his neighbour in Unit 142.

  
  


“We haven’t spoken to any of our neighbours apart from you Doyoung, the people on this floor barely come out and it’s hard to be friendly with homophobes,” Seulgi had murmured after her third glass of Pinot Noir and Joohyun let out a sigh in agreement.

  
  


Doyoung hasn’t introduced himself to the old man down the hall and doesn’t plan to. Ever. But his elusive neighbour, who definitely exists, from the yellow light seeping from underneath their door, and the clatter of pots and pans when it hits seven o’ clock, has never shown their face before and Doyoung is curious beyond belief. Call him nosy, but really, Doyoung would definitely like to have a another nice friend, as well as his lesbian besties.

But if there’s one thing he does know, is that his neighbour is a piano player. Not a frequent one, but they have tapped against those keys often enough and loud enough for Doyoung to definitively confirm that the instrument exists next door. Not anything Doyoung can recognise, but again, he isn’t well-versed in classical piano pieces, or anything that isn’t from Heart and Soul, which his little brother Jeno and his boyfriend, Renjun, love to play when Doyoung comes home for Chuseok. Like a broken record, all that rings in the Kim-Lee household during Thanksgiving is that dreadful song because the childhood sweethearts learnt it when they were six and refuse to play anything else. 

But yes, Unit 142 houses a piano player who cooks dinner for themselves and uses lights. 

  
  


It isn’t until Doyoung decides that, if he can’t find a boyfriend, he’ll make himself loyal and committed to a pet. He might as well take advantage of his animal-friendly apartment building and in fact, he is quite keen on adopting a dog. Jeno and his mum brought over their three fat cats when they moved into Doyoung and his father’s two-storey, and Doyoung loves them. Although Jeno sneezes like no other whenever they’re at home, and they love to sit on Doyoung’s chest just when he’s about to doze off, he loves them. But he’s always wanted a canine friend and this is the perfect opportunity to fulfil that. Despite his initial aversion to animals (dog and pram incident when he was four), Jeno had always endeavoured to help his older brother lose the fear. And by the fifteenth visit to the animal shelter, he achieved just that. 

  
  


But Old and Weary Kim Doyoung of twenty three years of age isn’t too keen on adopting a young puppy. They’re a handful and his job has him in the office for hours on end more often than not, and out of the country at least five times a year. So as much as he wants a ball of yappy, peeing, sunshine to care for and nurture, he just isn’t in the right situation to do so. 

  
  


So when he stops by the shelter, he spots the demure Golden Retriever in the cage at the back and knows that, indeed, is his baby. 

  
  


“Someone brought her over only a few days before you came in, and she had a tag but the number was faded, and no microchip either!” Sooyoung, the lady helping with his papers a week after, says, completely exasperated as she asks him to sign a few more white spaces.

  
  


Doyoung looks at the golden standing beside his legs with those soft brown eyes of hers, and he falls in love all over again. How could anyone lose such a beautiful thing is beyond him but all that matters is that Doyoung is going to love her to pieces.

  
  


“She’s around five or six years old, you’re walking her at least an hour a day, maybe make it interesting with a hike or a swim, and I’m sure you’ve researched how to take care of her but if you have any queries or concerns, just call your vet, okay?” Sooyoung straightens the papers behind the reception and smiles at him with her pearly whites and classic red lip, before kneeling down and giving the dog a pat on the head and a ‘Mr Doyoung is gonna take such good care of you Yeoreum!’ before she sends them off.

  
  


Yeoreum, after her straw-coloured fur and warmth that reminded Doyoung of summertime. Also, the sparkle in her eyes that reminds him of sparkling beaches on the coast of the peninsula, brought out in full force when Doyoung asks her when they get home if she wants to go on a walk. 

  
  


He realises after four laps around the block, that Yeoreum is bursting with energy, basically dragging him by the fourth lap to the steps of his building and he can’t wait to get her fed and to sleep before he knocks out. Doyoung isn’t unfit, not by a long shot, if his toned body shows for anything, but Yeoreum truly does a number on him by how fast and how long she can run for. 

  
  


They eventually get up the steps, Doyoung opting for the lift as opposed to the stairs he usually goes for, and on shaky legs, makes it back to Unit 140. 

  
  


Yeoreum is satisfied with her bowl of freeze-dried food and water as Doyoung lays boneless on the couch after his shower, his own bowl of kimchi fried rice untouched on the coffee table.

  
  


After she licks her bowl clean, Yeoreum pads towards the new bed Doyoung placed on the rug next to his feet and nestles there, staring up at him again with those dark orbs of hers and all Doyoung can do is laugh. 

  
  


“You’re so cute!” Doyoung speaks in his voice specifically reserved for small babies and animals, as he scratches her underneath the chin and finally gathers the strength to pick up his spoon and start to eat. He turns on an old episode of Grey’s Anatomy and can’t believe how lucky he is. Yeoreum has settled in with almost no qualms at all (Doyoung forgot to put out the pee pads and there was an accident on the kitchen floor when he came out of the shower) and he gets to have a companion who watches McDreamy act like a self-righteous dick while Meredith steals her own baby for four hours. Isn’t this the life?

  
  


Oh but what about the elusive neighbour next door? When Yeoreum pads to his bedroom at three in the morning, standing on her hind legs as she whines softly, Doyoung wakes with bleary eyes and rolls out of his bed, throwing on a hoodie hanging on his doorknob as he leads Yeoreum out of the bedroom. 

  
  


“Do you need to poop? Come on, we have to go to the roof baby.” He attaches her leash and slips into his Adidas slides as they shuffle out of Unit 140, doggy bag in hand. Doyoung again decides to take the lift, for the sake of his daughter’s bowels and his aching body. 

  
  


She does her business, Doyoung picks it up off the artificial grass underneath the midnight sky and they make their way back down the lift, Yeoreum considerably happier by the way she wags her tail right beside him, fur tickling at his bare calf. 

  
  


“Aren’t you a happy girl, c’mon let’s get inside ‘cos Daddy is freezing out here—”

  
  


Mellifluous. Something sweet seeps from under the door of Unit 142, soft yellow light melting out with it. 

Unit 142 is playing piano. Piano music? Doyoung creeps ever closer, Yeoreum trailing behind him cautiously.

  
  


Sure, Doyoung wants to knock on the door and finally learn the truth about the mysterious inhabitant of Unit 142. The piano playing, cooking neighbour. 

But Yeoreum lets out a long winded, unappreciative whine, and the music dims. The volume lowers but the song doesn’t halt and Doyoung makes haste towards his door because if heaven forbid two pretty lesbians or a singular pretty man opens that door while Doyoung looks like a slob in slides, he will not forgive himself. 

So if he tugs at Yeoreum’s leash and nudges her by the butt into their home, locks the door, leaves the doggy bag on his coffee table lest his metal bin slams with a cacophonous sound, and dives straight into bed with his eyes squeezed shut, that’s for no one to know. 

But as Yeoreum trods off to bed in the living room, Doyoung peels off his hoodie and tucks himself in, still with his eyes closed, the music is still playing.

  
  


Doyoung’s a relatively deep sleeper. Relative if you consider Jeno a standard, where Renjun tiptoeing into his bed after scrolling through Reddit in the living room of their apartment in the dead of night wakes him up.

He can’t sleep. Their walls aren’t thin enough for Doyoung to hear Mysterious Neighbour’s voice on the phone, or their conversations even, with the guests they have over, but he can hear the melody, muted but clear.  _ Do  _ they have guests over? Special friends? Anyone? Doyoung works ten to twelve hour shifts sometimes, but all the times he’s stalked up those stairs, whether it’s the morning, afternoon, or the dead of night, every single time of day, no one comes up those stairs with him, or up the lift, knocking on the door of Unit 142.

Statistically,  _ realistically _ , someone must have entered and exited that unit, for the last three months at least. 

  
  


Good Lord,  _ why _ is Mysterious Neighbour playing the same sad piano song on repeat at three in the morning? 

  
  


Doyoung cannot sleep. A low hum in his ear pulsing from the wall into the crown of his head, those dismal notes fusing themselves into the walls of his ear canals. Unluckily, he isn’t a fan of earplugs, ASMR turned to the highest possible volume without bleeding out his ears, or stuffing his face into his pillow. 

Doyoung doesn’t confront. But he has an 8AM meeting to attend tomorrow and he is losing beauty sleep by the seconds. Smug Suh Johnny and his lackey turned partner-in-terrorising Lee Donghyuck are going to serve his ass on a silver platter when they walk into the meeting room and spot the metre-long eyebags sagging off his face and the fact that his suit isn’t pressed because he couldn’t wake up at six, three hours from now, to iron all of its creases out. 

This is driving him up the wall. 

Also, he hates Johnny and Donghyuck. Even though Johnny is his best friend’s fiancé and Donghyuck totally has the hots for his brother and his boyfriend (and their mutual best friend with a shock of pink hair to compliment his sleazy, brilliant smile. Monogamy is truly dead.) 

  
  


It’s the tenth loop now, of this five minute piece. Now, it is almost four in the morning. Doyoung can see purples and a glimmer of sun at the edge of his peripheral vision. 

  
  


Yeoreum wakes the moment he opens his bedroom door and perks up at the sight of her owner.

  
  


‘Take me?’ her eyes plead and Doyoung has her leash in his hands before she can even step out of her fluffy bed. 

  
  


Doyoung is armed with his dog, his slides that he got from Taeyong as a fashion statement for his birthday, and his no-confrontation rule on the line. His curiosity has spiralled into full-fledged fear and sleep deprivation-induced impulsive behaviour.

  
  


He shuffles out, closes his door and make two more paces to his left. The warm yellow light is still there, and so is the music. That sweet musical sorrow leaking out of Doyoung’s brain at the present moment.

  
  


Yeoreum sits by his side, waiting tentatively as if she’s nervous, but also ready to jump whoever opens this door the second Doyoung shows any sign of fear. He thinks they’re a good team and it’s only been eight hours since they started working together.

He knocks softly three times. Sets of three always comfort Doyoung in times of crises, whether it’s triple checking the fine print before filing documents or that one time when him, Taeyong, and Johnny got drunk after Doyoung got incinerated in front of his entire department by their abusive boss five years ago. Crises, he must emphasise.

  
  


Nobody answers, but a slow slap of slippers against woodboards grows louder and louder until a shadow is cast on top of the yellow light. It’s one person, Doyoung deduces and decidedly, not two lovely lesbians but one Man. A man who opens the door, in plaid pajama pants, a black tee with a low neckline, exposing his collarbone and a dip in his chest, and with very, very pretty face.

  
  


The music is drowned by the awe Doyoung feels deep in his bones when he stares at  _ Mister  _ Mysterious Neighbour, who looks like he’s been through hell and back, yet his face still looks like it was crafted by angels with gilded fingers. Doyoung was never one for poetry but this man calls for it.

  
  


“Sorry, is the music bothering you?” A husky, gravelly voice interrupts Doyoung’s poetry spiel and he blinks in response, mouth unable to form words let alone make sounds.

  
  


“I- sorry, and I haven’t gotten a wink of sleep because the sadness is taking over my brain like a fever I can’t shake and I have a meeting tomorrow morning— today I guess, and I just—”

  
  


Handsome Neighbour leans against his doorframe, hands in the pockets of those red plaid cotton pants and he looks up from his socked, slippered feet and smiles. But it’s a tired smile and Doyoung wonders why he isn’t sleeping.

  
  


“I’m sorry, I’ve already been playing this for the last five hours on loop and you shouldn’t have to hear my misery from next door,” he finally notices the ball of dog curled next to Doyoung’s legs and his eyes widen to twice their size and start to sparkle like no other. This is familiar.

  
  


“Did I wake this one up too? I’m so sorry, I’ll definitely stop,” the neighbour coos out as he bends down and scratches her under the chin, Yeoreum’s favourite spot.

  
  


Doyoung is fifty-five percent positive he is going to marry this man. The remaining forty-five percent is because he hasn’t explicitly promised to stop playing the damned song. 

  
  


“I had to take her to the roof to do her business and that’s when I heard your piano playing, but um Mr—”

  
  


“Jaehyun, and I’m very sorry that this is our first meeting. I’m a little embarrassed, I’ll be honest,” Jaehyun extends his hand out for a handshake and Doyoung has to yank his hand out of his kangaroo pocket to accept it. Jaehyun, huh. Handsome Jaehyun The Neighbour.

  
  


“I’m Doyoung, and it’s fine, I mean not  _ fine _ but, I— um, are you perhaps, going through a tough time? I don’t mean to overstep, but this is objectively, a sad sounding song and I’m inclined to believe that maybe this is the part of the reason behind why I have not had the pleasure of meeting you since I moved three months ago.”

  
  


Jaehyun’s face is a mix of amused, fatigued, and taut in the way that Doyoung realises belatedly that he has indeed, overstepped.

  
  


“I’m so sorry—”

  
  


“Doyoung, it’s fine, I mean it’s a bit intrusive considering we just met a few minutes ago, but I should have had the manners to greet you when you moved in, and truthfully, yes I am going through a tough time, and that tough time began days before you moved in.” Jaehyun straightens his posture, eyes trained on Yeoreum but slowly brings them up to meet gazes with Doyoung. Doyoung is a little starstruck with how clear his eyes are. Not cloudy with the refusal to address the elephant in their hallway, surprisingly. A little niggling feeling in his tummy tells him it’s a broken heart but that’s just Doyoung’s gut.

  
  


“I just got broken up with by my partner of three years the week before you moved in, and I have been playing Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 for the last eight hours because I saw him today at the grocery store down our block, holding hands with someone else, and this was his favourite song to play during dinner time in this very unit. So yes, Doyoung, I am going through a tough time.” Jaehyun says with the clarity and finality of someone who sounds like he’s had closure. Maybe it’s the confidence and ability to admit that he’s vulnerable and weak. Akin to a moved-on man but not quite. Doyoung’s heart has just begun to bleed. Just like it did when he saw an abandoned Yeoreum at the pet shelter and when Taeyong told him with tears in his eyes, just as Doyoung showed up at his doorstep with roses and wine, that he had fallen in love with Doyoung’s friend from work. The punctures aren’t both fresh but they’re there.

  
  


“I’m very sorry to hear that Jaehyun, I apologise for my brash words.”

  
  


“Oh, no need Doyoung, you shook me from this debilitating cycle I threw myself in, so thank you for that,” Jaehyun looks him in the eyes as he says that, and indeed, the yellow light bathes him in such a wonderful way that Doyoung can’t help but to think he should be grateful too. 

  
  


“And for your lovely pupper here that woke you in the first place, I hope their handsome owner rewards them for their gracious act.” Jaehyun is still looking him in the eyes, a quirk of his rose-coloured lips as he does so and Doyoung is ninety-nine percent ready for holy matrimony. 

  
  


“I’ll-um, let them know,”

  
  


“Please do, I’m terribly sorry for interrupting their sleep and causing them inevitable stress for their morning meeting in a few hours time due to my selfish behaviour.”

  
  


“Jaehyun, this is not what I would consider selfish.” Doyoung means it all the more when he sees the pretence fall off his neighbour’s face like a tear sliding off the edge of someone’s jaw.

  
  


“Oh, but it’s a little selfish wanting to keep your handsome neighbour at your front door for a little longer despite knowing about the meeting he has in a few hours time.” 

  
  


Oh. 

Doyoung’s bangs cover the better part of his eyes, and he feels very exposed in his sleeping shorts that cut at mid thigh, with his extra large hoodie and worn out slides. Like open heart surgery minus the fee and the searing sensation in his chest when Jaehyun smiles.

  
  


“I’m sorry if I’m being too forward Doyoung, but you made my day a hell of a lot better with your visit.”

  
  


“It’s only just started,” Doyoung mumbles and he doesn’t have to look up through his fringe to know that his neighbour is already boring holes into his red face. 

  
  


“I’m sorry, you should go back to bed Doyoung, I will stop drowning myself at the keys and try to get some Z’s until I too, must get up for my morning meeting in a few hours time.” Doyoung thinks that Mr Jaehyun here, keeps rolling the syllables of his name off his tongue because he is already aware of its impact on him.

  
  
  


“Okay Jaehyun, if you insist, but please, no more of that song? It’s the only thing I ask,” Doyoung asks again, not because he thinks Jaehyun won’t listen to him, but because he is implying that Jaehyun shouldn’t listen to the song that only reminds him of his ex who has a new partner whom he holds hands with in the aisles of the local grocery store. That hurt him in ways unimaginable but with brown eyes as clear as day, Doyoung could be fooled himself. 

  
  
  


“You won’t ask for my number? I was kind of looking forward to babysitting your dog while you’re away at your tiresome job that requires meetings at unlawful times of day.”

  
  


Doyoung is tired, but he is intrigued yet very embarrassed by how he glows at the man’s every word.

  
  


“Do you not have your own tiresome job to attend to Jaehyun? I recall you saying you too, have a meeting in a few,” 

  
  


“Oh, but I could skip it if it meant hanging out with this cutie.” Goddamn it, he is  _ still  _ looking at Doyoung.

  
  


“Jaehyun, perhaps instead of a number, I could in turn ask you if you would be in your apartment at seven tonight?”

  
  


“Forward too, aren’t we Doyoung? You need to wine and dine me first, I’m afraid I’m a bit traditional in that way.” The sun is rising as they speak and Doyoung is ready to give all of his damned Heart and Soul to this man whom he has just met.

  
  


“I know you cook dinner for yourself at seven every night because you tend to clang your kitchenware about when you do, and I was wondering if I could introduce you to a new song instead of this one, one that doesn’t make my own chest clench in sadness?” Doyoung has no clue what consequences this has in the imminent and far future but by the blossoming of his neighbour’s cheeks, he thinks he’s on the right path.

  
  


“I didn’t pin you as an avid listener of classical music,”

  
  


“I’m good at research.” Doyoung counteracts and Jaehyun concedes with his hands out of his pockets and beside his head in surrender.

  
  


“Do your worst Doyoung, and I’ll see you at seven tonight,” Jaehyun stands up straight and Doyoung realises how close they’d gotten throughout their entire conversation. He could get used to this view.

  
  
  


Jaehyun gives Yeoreum another scratch before he shuts the door, not without his smile peeking through the closing gap, and Doyoung faces the gold-plated 142 and can’t help but smile to himself.

  
  


“Come on baby, you and I need to go to bed, because Daddy has a date in less than twenty four hours and he needs all the sleep he can get,”

  
  


If the absolute silence is telling, Doyoung would have to guess that Jaehyun has beat him to it and fallen asleep, hopefully.

  
  
  


“Doyoung, you look particularly perky today! Something good happen last night or did Ariana Grande finally follow you back on Twitter?” Johnny says as if those two things are not synonymous and Doyoung throws a lazy stink eye at him before he stretches out his arms and folds them.

  
  


“And why is it any of your business? Last I remembered, you and Donghyuck don’t give a rat’s ass about me unless it’s at my demise.” Donghyuck conveniently shows up at the call of his name and pouts. Completely illegal for a nineteen-year-old interning at a law firm but Doyoung isn’t mad. He has a soft spot for the devil but nobody needs to know that.

  
  


“But  _ Doie _ , we care about you! Truly! We just want to know what’s gotten you in such a good mood this morning when you usually look otherwise!” 

  
  


Screw that, Doyoung hates Suh Johnny and Lee Donghyuck with all of the cells in his body.

  
  


“Exactly! I mean, I wouldn’t get too jolly though, we have a new guy coming in from Lee & Wong, some hotshot who’s too good to be just a junior partner for two twenty year olds running their fathers’ firm,” Johnny twiddles his thumbs as he sinks further into his office chair and Donghyuck only drapes himself onto the couch of Doyoung’s office. 

  
  


“Whatever, our Doie here is going to set him straight right? Senior Partner Kim Doyoung-ssi,” the honey dripping from that boy’s voice is nothing short of flattering but Doyoung does not let his guard down when he pushes Johnny out of his chair with his hip and watches as his colleague drops to the floor with a yelp.

  
  
  


“Okay you two, enough of this behaviour, this Jung we’ve got is one of the best currently, if his clients are anything to go by, and sure he may be too good for Mark and Yukhei, but Taeil does not pick employees without thought, and nor does our name partner Nakamoto Yuta, despite his spontaneous reputation preceding him. So no malicious words are to leave your mouths otherwise I will make you two take on Xiao Inc. and that no-fun settlement they’re looking for from the Lius,”

  
  


That is enough for both Johnny and Donghyuck to zip their mouths shut, because nobody likes dealing with Xiao Dejun and Liu Yangyang in a room together, no matter if the latter is one of the longtime clients and sends them champagne every Christmas.

  
  


“Okay, I’ll see you boys in the meeting room in five, but you are not to speak a word once you leave my office, you understand?” Johnny rolls his eyes but slaps Doyoung on the back in response and Donghyuck just blows him a kiss.

  
  


“Okay Doie!” 

  
  


And like that, Dad and Son are out of his hair and Doyoung thanks the gods that Johnny is the IT specialist with a surprising amount of free time on his hands and not of equal standing to him or higher standing than him at this firm. Lord knows if he could deal with listening to his best-friend-turned-first-love’s fiancé and having to heed to his every word, despite how inherently lovely and kind he is at his core. Doyoung has pride in himself as a man whose exterior is weathered by rejection, but he’s trying to improve on that. 

  
  


“Kim, are you ready?” Silver-haired Yuta pops out from nowhere, his hair brushing at the shoulder seams of his suit as he stares adoringly into Doyoung’s eyes. That handsome clown and his long hair and eyelashes and dripping talent for law. Damn him. 

  
  


“This Jung guy better be it, otherwise I’m leaving for—”

  
  


“Dong and Li? We’ve had this conversation before Doyoung, trust me, this guy is more than just  _ it _ ,” Yuta extends his hand and Doyoung takes it as he stands up and walks with Yuta clinging to his side to the meeting room, where Taeil is already sitting at the head of the table. 

  
  
  


“Doyoung and Yuta, lovely of you to join us. I’ll just cut to the chase, this is Jung Jaehyun and he’ll be our new senior partner alongside Kim Doyoung, please give him your warmest welcomes,” and as Johnny and Donghyuck clap and make shrill whistles, Doyoung knows he’s done for.

  
  


“I’m honoured to be working at this esteemed firm and will prove that I am a worthy addition to the firm. I’m also very grateful to now be able to call myself a colleague of such a talented lawyer as Doyoung here,” Jaehyun says with complete sincerity and an undertone of sickly sweet kissing ass syrup as Doyoung turns stiffly to face the very man at the end of the table and forces himself to clap despite his shock.

  
  


“Kim, you okay? You feel a little sweaty,” Yuta comments as he pats Doyoung up and down the back and Doyoung grits out a ‘yes Yuta, you can stop rubbing my back now.’ 

  
  


Jung Jaehyun with those crystal clear eyes, his dog-loving being and chestnut brown hair styled up instead of pulled back with a headband. Jung Jaehyun, his sad neighbour, gives him a look that warns Doyoung that he should stay away lest he loses his sanity right here in front of his colleagues. 

  
  


“We’re very happy to have you here Jaehyun, I’m sure you and Doyoung will be good friends in no time,”

  
  


-

“Jungwoo, please cancel the appointment at seven o’ clock tonight,”

  
  


“But you said you had a dinner reservation with—”

  
  


“Oh I _know_ _Jungwoo_!” 

-

When Doyoung shows up at Jaehyun’s door at seven sharp, still in his suit and tie but with Yeoreum at his side, Jaehyun only opens the door wide, he too, in his pinstripe suit, and steps aside.

  
  


“I’m glad you kept to your word, senior partner,”

  
  


“Did you know that  _ gymnopédie  _ comes from the ancient Greek word for an annual festival where young men danced naked or were unarmed?” Doyoung takes off his Oxfords and makes a quick once over of the room before directing his gaze to Jaehyun, who still has that sly smirk hanging off his lips since the morning. 

  
  


“Are you implying what I think you’re implying Doyoung?” Yeoreum isn’t sure how to react when Doyoung tightens his grip on her leash, letting out a confused whine this time, with her head cocked to the side.

  
  


“No, Jaehyun, I meant that I am unarmed, and not going to ambush you despite my shock at you knowing exactly who I was and at being blindsided at eight in the morning, and I’m telling you to play Once Upon a December by Emile Pandolfi. Anastasia is one of my favourite animated movies of all time.” 

  
  


Jaehyun, one hand in his pocket and one hand offered to Doyoung in more of a segue to an embrace than a handshake, lets the smirk go for his award-winning smile.

  
  


“Doyoung, I think I just might marry you,”

  
  


So Doyoung has a sad neighbour who loves Anastasia and Yeoreum as much as he does, and knew who Doyoung was the minute he stepped into the building with a briefcase and shoulders hunched with the weight of guilt served as a side dish when operating in corporate law.

  
  


So they serve settlements like bars off a rap track, zeroes skyrocketing like the size of Doyoung’s heart after he catches Jaehyun and Yeoreum asleep on his couch after winning their first court case and getting their clients a sum of money one could not fathom seeing even in a dream. So they subpoena, argue, research, cry sometimes, all the while being neighbours that happen to eat dinner together at seven every night with the company of a straw-coloured dog and the blanket of piano songs that Doyoung chooses after he does research on the commute home, specifically without the company of said neighbour. The element of surprise Doyoung argues and Jaehyun lets him win even though his sleek Ferrari has space for one more. So they grow closer and closer and closer until Doyoung is bursting with a honey-like warmth that only enters his bloodstream when he opens his front door to see those clear eyes and think oh wow, that might just be the love of my life.

  
  


“I was thinking Liebestraume by Liszt,” Doyoung says after swallowing a mouthful of spaghetti.

  
  


“Doyoung.”

  
  


“I was thinking the third would suffice, but the second works fine too.”

  
  


When Jaehyun drops his fork and surges to plant a kiss onto Doyoung’s sauce-smeared mouth, he thinks he’ll remember his decision to act confrontational for the first time in his life forever. Because it meant that he would be kissing the Mysterious Neighbour turned Senior Partner turned Co-Parent of his child at seven o’ clock at night with Liszt warbling in the background. Sure Doyoung doesn’t confront, but when someone hears Gymnopedie No. 1 at three in the morning, a hum that won’t escape them no matter how many sheep you count or breaths you take, sometimes you just have to go with your gut. 

**Author's Note:**

> maybe 2020 is my year... two fics? in one month? something must be awry in the universe because this is very ooc of oaf. but here i am, with this wip i had the moment i saw that one hour loop on my youtube recs and thought immediately... dojae. they're my favourite 127 ship and i hope this is the start of more fic i write for them! they're both of my ults and i thank all of the dj writers for all the good work they've been doing for our society TT also i've been watching suits again, so cut me some slack and let me squeeze in some sexy lawyers and imagining nakamoto moon as *jessica pearson or harvey specter voice* the best goddamn law firm in seoul!
> 
> send me thoughts on [twt](https://twitter.com/_norencult) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/98mbins) ! 
> 
> lots of love, oaf
> 
> p.s. or send thoughts in the comments !! pls !! ur favourite line works too :))
> 
> p.p.s the significance of liebestraume:
> 
> Originally the three Liebesträume were conceived as lieder after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath. 
> 
> The two poems by Uhland and the one by Freiligrath depict three different forms of love. Uhland's "Hohe Liebe" (exalted love) is saintly or religious love: the "martyr" renounces worldly love and "heaven has opened its gates". The second song "Seliger Tod" (blessed death) is often known by its first line ("Gestorben war ich", "I had died"), and evokes erotic love; ("I was dead from love's bliss; I lay buried in her arms; I was wakened by her kisses; I saw heaven in her eyes"). Freiligrath's poem for the famous third Notturno is about unconditional mature love ("Love as long as you can!", "O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst").
> 
> also one of my favourite pieces!


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